The original requests to declassify the Carter Page FISA application came in January 2018 as a result of the Nunes memo.   A classified and heavily redacted version of the application was released July 21st, 2018.  A month later, in August 2018, Congress again requested the Trump administration to declassify the document(s).

In September 2018 DAG Rod Rosenstein told the President if he followed through with the request Special Counsel Mueller would consider that an obstruction of his investigation:

As a consequence of the Rosenstein threat President Trump reversed course (tweets above) and announced after Horowitz completed his investigation the FISA would be declassified and released.

The mid-term elections were held in November 2018; democrats took over the House.

In March 2019, after the Special Counsel finished his investigation, a now minority in congress again formally asked President Trump (3rd time) to declassify the FISA application.

On May 23rd, 2019, President Trump announced he was giving Attorney General Bill Barr the authority to declassify the FISA application, timed to support the IG investigation:

Continue reading →

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appears on Fox News to discuss the upcoming impeachment trial and the processes within the Senate that will be followed.

McConnell states he will be working closely with White House counsel and the President’s lawyers.  The Senate Leader said “there’s no chance the President is removed from office”.

.

[Sidebar (somewhat): I find it to be interesting timing for this interview… U.S-China trade agreement, phase-one, announced today and Senator McConnell comes out in full-throated defense of presidency. Perhaps just a coincidence.]

The House of Representatives holds a markup hearing to assemble two articles of impeachment against President Trump.  Afternoon Session – 2:30pm

CSPAN Livestream Link – PBS Livestream Link – Fox Business Livestream

.

.

There are several dozen critical issues that stem from revelations about the DOJ and FBI conduct in/around the Carter Page FISA application (2017) and Steele Dossier writ large; but DOJ official Bruce Ohr still being employed isn’t one of them, and here’s why.

Bruce Ohr on right

What exactly would Bruce Ohr be held accountable for?

What Mr. Ohr did wrong was back-channel information from dossier author Christopher Steele into the FBI; made worse because this is after Chris Steele was persona non grata; and done by Ohr without telling his bosses at Main Justice.  Obviously, not good.

However, considering the time-frames of the FD-302 reports written by Ohr’s handler FBI agent Joseph Pientka, Bruce Ohr was channeling information into the Crossfire Hurricane team in 2017.  That same FBI team became the Mueller investigation FBI team, and from the 302 notes we know Ohr was channeling information from Christopher Steele into the Mueller team after the administrations’ changed.   Again, not good, but…

Bruce Ohr wasn’t the only non FBI person back-channeling information from corrupt source Christopher Steele into the FBI and Mueller team in 2017.

SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner was doing exactly the same thing.

Senator Warner was having secret contacts, “would rather not have a paper trail”, with Steele through liaison Adam Waldman, and then relaying information to Robert Mueller.

.

So how is the DOJ going to hold Bruce Ohr accountable for back-channeling unverified information from corrupted source Christopher Steele to the FBI (Mueller), when SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner was doing exactly the same thing?

The impeachment coup was a plan, an insurance policy of sorts; a coordinated effort between corrupt politicians and hold-over allies in the executive; however, because she didn’t want to participate in this – Senator Dianne Feinstein abdicated her vice-chair position to Senator Mark Warner.  [Background Here]

This is the pre-cursor to utilizing Robert Mueller.  A plan that was developed soon after the 2016 election.  The appointment of a special counsel was always the way they were going to hand-off and continue the investigation into Trump; but they needed a reason for it.

The continued exploitation of the Steele Dossier was critical; Chris Steele was the wildcard… they needed Chris Steele to be solid.  And the continued manipulation of the media was also critical; thus they needed Fusion-GPS to continue.  [Dan Jones paid both]

Through the spring of 2017, while Mark Warner was communicating with Adam Waldman and Dan Jones as a conduit to Chris Steele, the FBI/DOJ team was communicating through Bruce Ohr to Chris Steele (and by extension to Nellie Ohr and Fusion GPS).

Part of Warner’s role was to weaponize the Legislative branch to advance the ‘Muh Russia conspiracy’, a fundamental necessity if a special counsel was going to have justification.

Quite a navigation issue for U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr.

Again, no rush on this one…  Until someone works out the final decisions on how to handle Warner, if at all, there’s no consistent way to tackle Bruce Ohr for the Steele contacts.

The ultimate disposition of Senator Warner could likely be an aspect of a multitude of unprecedented issues that no-one would think about.  Vice-Chair Warner is a member of the intelligence oversight ‘gang-of-eight‘… so that makes things even more complicated.

That politically complex dynamic is likely why the former DOJ knuckeheads, together with Robert Mueller, decided to let SSCI intelligence leaker James Wolfe get away with little accountability.

Now AG Barr has to re-navigate these issues… John Durham is investigating… Meanwhile Bruce Ohr opens mail, or something.

“Complicate business folks, complicated business.”

Gang of Eight, 2019

.

.

.

.

.

Bruce Ohr, 2019

Representative Jim Jordan recaps the history of the investigative targeting of President Trump and the malicious partisan political impeachment.  “They don’t like us”… “that’s why they want to get rid of us”… “that’s why they want to weaponize the government”…

.

You know why the entire apparatus is united against President Trump. You know why the corrupt Wall Street financial apparatus is united against President Trump. You know why every institutional department, every lobbyist, every K-Street dweller, every career legislative member, staffer, and the various downstream economic benefactors, including the corporate media, all of it – all the above, are united against Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is an existential threat to the existence of a corrupt DC system we have exposed to his disinfecting sunlight. Donald Trump is the existential threat to every entity who benefits from that corrupt and vile system.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham appears on Fox News with Sean Hannity to receive attaboys for his efforts and discuss his views on IG Horowitz testimony.

Chairman Graham notes he would like to hear from current FBI Director Christopher Wray and former Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein…

Tonight the House Judiciary Committee is urgently rushing to debate articles of impeachment against President Trump.  The hearing begins at 7:00pm ET.

♦Article One is “Abuse of power” – and structured on a false premise that President Trump “exercised the powers of his public office to obtain an improper personal benefit, while ignoring or injuring the national interest.”

♦Article Two is “Obstruction of Congress” – and structured on a ridiculous premise that President Trump “engaged in unprecedented, categorical, and indiscriminate defiance of the impeachment inquiry”, by challenging congressional subpoenas and seeking relief from the judicial branch.

Fox Business Livestream – CBSN Livestream Link – CSPAN Livestream

.

.

Well, it looks like some efforts have paid off.  In an unusual update two days after the IG report was published, the IG modifies the report content. See Update Notification Below:

Apparently the DOJ and FBI had a change of heart about the FISA dates.

Actually they’ve re-written a portion of the report, and moved some material completely.  As an example this section formerly present on page ii of the executive summary is now moved to page vi:

Prior Paragraph:

Revised Paragraph per November 11, 2019:

This matches the FISA dates we already identified: Original application Oct 21, 2016. The first FISA renewal was January 12, 2017 (84 days from origination). The second renewal was April 7, 2017 (85 days from prior renewal). The third renewal was on June 29th, 2017 (83 days from prior renewal).

Now, if the DOJ or any enterprising congressperson wants to really dig into the issue, they can request a declassified copy of the exact version the FISC generated on March 17th, 2017, to be delivered to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Custodian James Wolfe.

The March 17th copy delivered to SSCI Director Wolfe and Vice-Chair Mark Warner would only have the original and first renewal.

Start asking questions about why the copy from March 17th, 2017, has different dates than the original FISA application and first renewal.  That March 17th copy was seeded with a false date of origination. The reason for the false date appears to be the FBI leak taskforce initiated by Sessions. The false date was a leak trap.

That’s exactly what happened.

♦ On March 17th, 2017, the Senate Intelligence Committee took custody of the FISA application used against Carter Page.   We know the FISA court delivered the read and return Top-Secret Classified application due to the clerk stamp of March 17, 2017.

(Page FISA Application, Link)

The FISA application (original and first renewal) was delivered to Senate Security Director James Wolfe.  Senator Mark Warner entered the basement SCIF shortly after 4:00pm on March 17, 2017, the day it was delivered (texts between Warner and Waldman):

Now, when SSCI Security Officer James Wolfe was indicted (unsealed June ’18), we could see the importance of the March 17th date again:

(Wolfe Indictment Link)

We could tell from the description within the Wolfe indictment FBI investigators are describing the FISA application.  Additionally Wolfe exchanged 82 text messages with his reporter/girlfriend Ali Watkins.  The FISA application is 83 pages with one blank page.

The logical conclusion was that Wolfe text Ali Watkins 82 pictures of the application.

FBI Investigators applied for, and received a search warrant for the phone records of journalist Ali Watkins through November 2017.  Ms. Watkins was notified in February 2018, three months after Wolfe was questioned by FBI investigators in December 2017.

However, despite the overwhelming (public) circumstantial evidence that Wolfe leaked the FISA application, he was never charged with leaking classified information.  Wolfe was only charged with lying three times to federal authorities, and he pled down to one count of lying to the FBI.

CTH made the case in mid 2018 that someone at the DOJ had influenced a decision not to charge Wolfe with the leaking of the FISA application; despite the FBI and DOJ having direct evidence of Wolfe leaking classified information.

The logical reason for the Rosenstein DOJ not to charge Wolfe with the FISA leak was because that charge would ensnare powerful Senators on the powerful committee.  Worse still, in hindsight we now see how that committee was working to aide the purposes and intents of the corrupt DOJ and FBI officials as they built their impeachment agenda.

Remember, the SSCI has intelligence oversight of the DOJ, DOJ-NSD, FBI and all associated counterintelligence operations. Additionally, when the FBI was investigating Wolfe for leaking classified documents, according to their court filings they had to inform the committee of the risk Wolfe represented.  Who did they have to inform?.. Chairman Richard Burr and Vice-Chair Mark Warner.

Think about it.  Both gang-of-eight members (Warner/Burr), who happened -as a consequence of the jaw dropping implications- to be two SSCI members who were warned by the FBI that Wolfe was compromised…. and they, along with Feinstein in 2016, were the co-conspirators who used James Wolfe.  The ramifications cannot be overstated.

Any criminal charges for leaking classified intelligence information against James Wolfe would likely result in a major scandal where the SSCI itself was outlined as participants in the weaponization of government for political intents.  Thus, the perfect alignment of interests for a dropped charge and DC cover-up.  REMEMBER:

(Source)

If it wasn’t already transparently sketchy, in an act of serendipity and self-preservation, the accused Security Director James Wolfe evidenced the schemes when he threatened to subpoena members of the SSCI as part of his defense. [See Here]

[…] Attorneys for James A. Wolfe sent letters to all 15 senators on the committee, notifying them that their testimony may be sought as part of Mr. Wolfe’s defense, according to two people familiar with the matter.

[…] Mr. Wolfe’s defense lawyers are considering calling the senators as part of the proceedings for a variety of reasons, including as potential character witnesses and to rebut some of the allegations made by the government in the criminal complaint, these people say.  (link)

Immediately after threatening to subpoena the SSCI (July 27, 2018), the DOJ (Rosenstein authorizing) cut a deal with Wolfe and dropped the charges down to a single charge of lying to investigators.  However, someone in the FBI who was doing the investigative legwork wasn’t happy with that decision.

The overwhelming circumstantial evidence that Wolfe leaked the FISA application went from a strong suspicion, to damn certain (after the plea deal) when the DOJ included a sentencing motion in mid-December 2018.

On December 15th, 2018 the DOJ filed a response to the Wolfe defense teams’ own sentencing memo (full pdf), and within the DOJ response they included an exhibit (#13) written by the FBI [redacted] special agent in charge, which specifically says: “because of the known disclosure of classified information, the FISA application”… Thereby admitting, albeit post-plea agreement, that Wolfe did indeed leak the FISA:

(link to document)

Right there, in that FBI Special Agent description is the bombshell admission that James Wolfe leaked the Carter Page FISA application to journalist Ali Watkins at Buzzfeed. (Keep Reading Background)…

Because the copy delivered to the SSCI on March 17th, 2017, had a modified date as a leak tracer. All subsequent public releases of the FISA dates had to either: (A) duplicate the false date; or (B) be redacted.

Oddly, and *coincidentally*, after the DOJ made the decision to declassify the previously hidden dates today, another announcement followed:

WASHINGTON — The primary liaison between the Justice Department and the special counsel’s office is set to step down at the end of the month, after helping oversee the department’s most consequential and controversial investigation in a generation.

Edward O’Callaghan, who served as the deputy attorney general’s right-hand man, worked closely with the deputy attorney general at the time, Rod J. Rosenstein, to oversee the Russia investigation. He had primary supervisory responsibilities over the special counsel’s office, which was led by Robert S. Mueller III. (more)

And for the Trifecta:

What do all three have in common?

(1) DOJ tells IG to declassify FISA dates.

(2) Ed O’Callagahan removed (going to private practice).

(3) Jessie Liu removed as U.S. DC Attny (going to treasury).

Answer:  The James Wolfe Coverup.